This year I decided to give dry January a try again. I had done it in past years successfully, other years not so successfully. December was a shit show at my work and like many people my way of dealing with stress and overwhelm is a glass of wine. While in other years the drinking would be tied to holiday parties, this year was simply about survival and making it through the month. I had to complete a layoff right around Thanksgiving which was fucking awful but at a startup when you are running out of money and no one wants to add to the pot, there are not many choices we are left with to save cash.
I ended up getting sick like so many others around Christmas and ended up moving between feeling terrible for a few days, and then picking myself up for holiday parties and events and continuing the drinking. Once January 1 rolled around I knew I needed a break from the drinking and frankly I knew it was time to find another way to deal with my stress and anxiety beyond the booze.
It’s actually been pretty easy this time around. In the past my drinking has been so tied to my identity that I actually would stress myself out obsessing about how people would react to the fact that I was not drinking. I imagined wild scenarios where people would literally stop hanging out with me because I wasn’t drinking and that would ultimately lead me to end up drinking more. I have been doing a lot of work in therapy to work through this identity crisis, that coupled with dry January being so popular I felt like this year it wouldn’t be as hard. I was right.
It’s the last day of the month and frankly, I feel great. The biggest change I have noticed has been my sleep. A chronic insomniac, I often would lie in bed awake until 3-4 in the morning with my mind racing about work, my health, and then inevitably about why I was not able to fall asleep. The first two weeks my sleep still wasn’t great, it was about two weeks ago when I finally fell asleep quickly but I slept like a ROCK and through the entire night. I haven’t slept this hard in ages and I am actually finding myself sleeping through my alarm, I figure that my body has a lot to catch up on.
My skin is looking great, I don’t have issues with breakouts but the redness has gone down and my complexion seems a bit brighter. In other years when doing dry January I would literally be counting down the days and planning a night out on February 1, but not this year. I noticed that while work is still stressful as hell, I seem to manage it better without the drinking.
And so, tomorrow is February 1 and I’d like to see how long I can go. I’ve never really looked at the thought of not drinking in a positive way. I have never thought about the positives outside of the prospect of losing weight. For whatever reason this year feels different, I am not disasterizing (not sure that a real word) all the things that will go wrong in my social life without alcohol. I am finding myself wondering how much better things can be without alcohol.
I am not committing to being sober by any means, that feels too heavy right now. But I am feeling hopeful about where I am and to see what changes continue to happen with my body and overall health as I abstain from the booze.
One thing that’s been surprising to me, and extremely helpful, is the number of people not drinking anymore and how many bars and restaurants have great options for non-alcoholic drinks. It’s been fun trying out legit great beers as well as testing out fun cocktails with all the non-alcoholic spirits. My go to outside of wine has always been a good pilsner or IPA and a G&T. I listed some of my go to’s below for when I was feeling festive and didn’t miss the booze at all. Dealing with the emotions of realizing some of the people you spend time with are frankly not that interesting with booze, well that’s a whole other story for another time.
I’d love to hear what everyone else thinks of dry January and the growing trend of not drinking. See you in the comments!
My Favorite NA Spirits and Beer
Pearsons Botanicals: Rhubarb and Ginger
A great alternative to gin, mix with tonic and its perfect for happy hour or any day of the week.
I love the free wave IPA and Hazy IPA, great for parties or watching the game.
This is great if you are just starting to try NA beer so you can figure out which one is your favorite. Mine is Elvis.
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